Eastman Kodak Co.’s shares declined in over-the-counter trading after the photography pioneer’s bankruptcy filing prompted the New York Stock Exchange to delist the securities. They fell 45 percent to 31 cents at 1:37 p.m. New York time on volume of 49 million shares. The Rochester, New York-based company’s stock symbol changed today to “EKDKQ” from “EK.”

Kodak started trading at the New York Stock Exchange in April 1905, according to data compiled by the market.

Kodak saw mixed performance on Friday as it fought to get back to profitability. Although it now had a cash balance of $1.4 billion, up from $500 million in a pre-bankruptcy fall 2011, its losses widened from $246 million to $366 million. The deeper impact was pinned on restructuring costs as the company hoped to sell off money-losing divisions.

Its revenue dropped 27 percent from a year ago, to $965 million, as it eliminated the camera business that had defined the company for much of its life.

Losses are likely to shrink as the reorganization costs go down. The company's position is still uncertain, as it will have few businesses outside of printers if and when it exits bankruptcy.

Much of Kodak's fate could still ride on lawsuits. A successful exit from bankruptcy would see it face an on-hold Apple lawsuit Kodak has also been suing Apple, Samsung, and HTC in an attempt to restore its financial position through patent disputes. Similar attempts to extract royalties from Apple and RIM failed and might reflect Kodak's legal future.

Eastman Kodak Co.'s effort to draw interest in the sale of its digital patent portfolio is flagging, people familiar with the matter said, complicating the 132-year-old photography pioneer's chances of emerging from bankruptcy court.

The people said the company hasn't been able to attract what's known as a stalking-horse bidder, one who agrees ahead of time to purchase the assets for a certain price, a tactic that can push prices higher. As a result, those people said, Kodak is preparing to hold a "naked" auction for the patents, one in which no suitor makes an opening bid before the auction begins.

The patent sale is an essential step in the turnaround of the company, which bungled efforts to reduce its reliance on film sales and is continuing a risky transformation to compete against bigger rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. in the market for printers.

Creditors believe the company's 1,100 patents hold most of its value. The Rochester, N.Y., company has said an independent review of its patents put their worth up to $2.6 billion.

A recent adverse legal ruling has tarnished their prospects. A strong sale would let Kodak pay off its debts and leave it with cash to fund its new businesses. In the worst case for Kodak's 17,100 employees, a failure to monetize the patents could force the company to liquidate.

"Kodak's management and advisers have been working diligently on our plan for emergence," a spokesman said. "We have also made substantial progress in the business itself."

Unsecured Kodak bonds that come due in 2018 are trading at 13 cents on the dollar, compared with between 35 and 40 cents on the dollar before the Chapter 11 filing, a trader said.

Kodak must file procedures for the patent auction by June 30, a condition imposed by its lenders. The patents cover technology for previewing photos on a digital camera and sharing them online. Those are important functions for makers of smartphones and tablets, helping Kodak raise $1.9 billion via patent settlements between 2008 and 2010.

Patents relevant to mobile devices have become hot property in the past two years amid a litigation free-for-all by companies hoping to gain an edge in the fiercely competitive market. Last year, Nortel Networks raised an unexpectedly high $4.5 billion selling patents to a consortium of companies including Apple Inc., BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. Google Inc. responded later last summer with a deal to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and its wealth of intellectual property for $12.5 billion.

Kodak hasn't been drawing the same level of interest from suitors.

The company has sounded out Apple, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., as well as firms that buy up patents purely to litigate, said people familiar with the matter. Samsung and Apple declined to comment; LG Electronics didn't reply to a request for comment.

Companies auctioning assets during bankruptcy proceedings usually secure a stalking horse bidder to set a value for the assets and generate enthusiasm for the coming auction.

In return, they often get a "breakup fee" if another suitor outbids them. They are especially important in patent sales, where they create a sense of urgency to respond to a potential competitor who could use the patents against rivals, said

James Malackowski, chief executive of Ocean Tomo LLC, a Chicago-based intellectual property brokerage and advisory firm. A stalking horse bid "almost universally" drives up the price of a portfolio, he said. Mr. Malackowski isn't involved in the Kodak auction.

The potential value of Kodak's patents was hurt last month. A judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission found the image-preview patent that Kodak had pressed for two years in suits against iPhone maker Apple and BlackBerry maker RIM was invalid. Kodak said at the time it would appealed the judge's ruling to the six-member commission in Washington, D.C.

That particular patent had been considered the crown jewel of one of the two portfolios up for sale. Kodak either won suits or secured settlements 32 times when it brought claims, mainly against smartphone makers, involving digital imaging.

It also has launched a new round of claims against makers of tablets like the iPad. The ruling at the trade commission, however, has left bidders unsure of the patent's value, people involved in the sale said.

Companies also may be wary of being the first to bid on the patents, because it could make them a target of litigation, said a person familiar with the matter.

Kodak put the patents on the block in August, but potential buyers grew concerned they could be clawed back by creditors if the struggling company was to file for bankruptcy protection. In addition, some patent experts were skeptical of the value left in Kodak's patents because they don't involve core wireless technology and had already been so heavily licensed.

Kodak plans to sell the patents in two bundles: technologies for taking digital photos, and patents covering editing, storage and sharing, a person familiar with the matter said.

A successful sale is "not a precondition for exiting bankruptcy protection," the person said. adding if Kodak were to receive bids lower than it deems fair, it would look again at licensing and other ways to make money from the portfolio.

Kodak, however, put its patents up for sale in the first place because the once-healthy stream of settlements from the litigation had dried up, depriving the company of much-needed cash to finance its new ventures.

If Kodak does get a good price for its patents, it still faces the hurdle of convincing existing creditors that its strategy of shifting into the printing business is viable. Some board members fear that will be a difficult task, one person familiar with the matter said.

Kodak holds about a 2% share of the printer market, according to market research firm Gartner.

It has continued to suffer losses since filing for Chapter 11. In the first quarter, it posted a $366 million loss as sales fell 27% to $965 million.

Leaders of large corporations often have a little bit of the crazy about them. Like, for instance, Kodak founder George Eastman, who, back in 1928, insisted that the official company calendar had to use 13 months.

The system, originally proposed by a chap called Moses B. Cotsworth in 1902, is called the " International Fixed Calendar". It splits the year into 13 months of 28 days each, with one or two days each year not belonging to any month. The extra month, called "Sol", appeared between June and July.

It wasn't a passing fad, either: it was used by Kodak as the official date system until 1989. That's over 60 years of using a bat-shit crazy system. Behaving like that, it's surprising it's lasted as long as it has. [ Peta Pixel]

It's sort of why Apple and other companies use a 52/53-week year, always ending a quarter on the same day of the week. Accounting for payroll is simpler when the quarter ends on the last day of a payroll period. And having identical-length periods of 4 weeks makes it easier to set sales goals and compare performance.

Not that I know of, but here is what the official Kodak calendars looked like:

You're right seems reasonable, according to Wiki:

Advantages

The several advantages of The International Fixed Calendar are mainly related to its organization.

Every year has exactly 52 weeks divided in 13 months.

Each month has exactly 28 days divided in 4 weeks.

The calendar is the same every year (perennial), unlike the annual Gregorian calendar, which differs from year to year. Hence, scheduling is easier for institutions and industries with extended production cycles.

Every day of the month falls on the same weekday in each month—the 17th always falls on a Tuesday, for example.

Statistical comparisons by months are more accurate, since all months contain exactly the same number of business days and weekends; likewise for comparisons by 13-week quarters.

Thirteen equal divisions of the year are superior to twelve unequal divisions in terms of monthly cash flow in the economy, or so supporters of the IFC argued. [10]

NEW YORK— Eastman Kodak Co. received the go-ahead to auction off its valuable trove of digital patents in a contest that will take place behind closed doors and lacks a court-sanctioned lead bidder.

Judge Allan Gropper of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan Monday indicated he would sign off on the rules that will govern bidding for some 1,100 patents, estimated by Kodak to be worth up to $2.6 billion.

The Rochester, N.Y., company in January filed for Chapter 11 after a decadeslong struggle with the emergence of competitors that challenged its iconic film business and the rise of digital technology. The patent sale lies at the heart of its hopes for survival.

Judge Gropper said he was fine with the strong current of confidentiality running through Kodak's proposals for the auction set to begin August 8 and with the fact that the company didn't tap a so-called stalking horse bidder to kick off the fight for the assets.

But he did take issue with a provision that would have limited who was allowed to speak out against the transaction at the final sale hearing, where Judge Gropper will decide whether the deal passes the court's muster. He worried that the company's rules would force him to put on "blinders" and ignore possible complaints from bidders or others about the auction process.

The bidding procedures "as far as I see it, go far beyond any procedures I've ever seen in a bankruptcy case with regard to the power and authority they give to the debtors to do whatever the debtors want so long as the committees agree," Judge Gropper said. Kodak has given several parties, including its official committee of unsecured creditors, "reviewing creditor" status, meaning the company needs their consent to proceed with a winning bid.

Andrew D. Dietderich, a Sullivan & Cromwell LLP attorney representing Kodak, argued that a deal that both the company and its reviewing creditors consider to be in Kodak's best interests should carry much weight with the court. He ultimately agreed to scale back the objection restrictions but stressed that the sale rules should send a message that the auction was the end of the line.

"It's important that the auction be final," he said. "We need to be able to send a firm message that it's over."

Protests about the sale process came from various Kodak license holders, including big-name technology companies like Intel Corp., Inc. and Nikon Corp. Those businesses resolved the majority of their qualms before the hearing got under way, as did a group of retirees who had complained they weren't being given a powerful enough voice in the sale process.

The biggest remaining hurdle is Apple Inc., which is battling Kodak for ownership of 13 patents that Kodak wants to include in the sale. Apple, also a possible buyer of Kodak assets, expressed concerns that the industry's "patent trolls" could use the patents to squeeze money from manufacturers. Paul Basta, a Kirkland & Ellis attorney representing Apple, was also critical of the objection provision that caught Judge Gropper's eye, saying his client might find itself powerless to speak out in opposition to a deal that affects its rights.

"We've been limited now with respect to things that we don't yet know about," Mr. Basta said.

The sale process puts two groups of patents up for grabs; the first includes more than 700 patents covering technology used in digital cameras, smartphones and tablet computers to capture, process and transmit images. The second group has more than 400 patents for technology used to analyze, manipulate, store and access images. Both portfolios include foreign patents as well as pending U.S. and foreign patent applications.

According to Kodak, it has been able to earn more than $3 billion from licensing the patents over the past decade.